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[Update: This turned out to be more of a mystery than I expected. It’s from “The Climax.” According to imdb, there is a deteriorating copy of the silent version at UCLA, so it may qualify as a lost film.] My goodness! What have we done to the camera this time? |
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[Update: This is truly a mystery photo. The production in question is “The Climax,” and although I can find information on filming in The Times, I can’t find a review or display ads for the film. ] I had to alter the contrast and brightness to make the handwriting readable on the Web. Jan. 5, 1929: Antonio Moreno is cast in “The Climax.” Universal’s production of “The Climax” is fully cast by Jan. 12, 1929. Feb. 15, 1929: Jean Hersholt leaves Universal but promises to return for “The Climax.” April 11, 1929, LeRoy Mason is added to the cast, apparently to replace Antonio Moreno. July 14, 1929: The shooting is completed on “The Climax.” May 22, 1938: Jean Hersholt finds a print of “The Climax” in a Hollywood camera shop. The camera is in a mystery box inscribed with the mystery phrase: “We all love Grandma.” Here’s our mystery microphone…. [Update: This is Kathryn Crawford.] … our mystery talent … … and our mystery guys standing around. |
ladailymirror.com 
In the very early days of sound they put the noisy cameras into these “Black Marias.” The studios were terrified by the advent of dialogue-with-film and the sound engineers took over and ruled the roost like little despots. It was many of the directors Hollywood recruited from Broadway, who were not afraid of dialogue, that broke up the sound guys’ grip on nearly everything.
The fiddle player looks a lot like a pre-“Rebel Without A Cause” James Dean but it ain’t. Perhaps its Fidel Castro who acted in several Hollywood musicals before going into government, but we digress….
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Very early attempts at sound recording required the fluid camera of silent film be placed inside a soundproofed box and made immobile. It wouldn’t take long for technicians to overcome the problem. First with sound blankets to cover the camera, then by placing it in a ‘blimp’ housing to muffle the noise. The blimp solution freed cameras to be once again fluid, and the golden age of the thirties soon followed.
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“Street Angel,” (1928) with Charles Farrell playing the fiddle–director Frank Borzage in the final photo.
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It’s not LADIES LOVE BRUTES with George Bancroft and Ferike Boros is it? That looks like Guinn “big Boy” Williams at bottom.
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